Today, our main dish is a solemn conversation our Lord Jesus had with His Apostle Peter written for us in Luke 22:31–34:
(31) And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has desired you, that he may sift you as wheat.
(32) But I have prayed for you, that your faith fail not.
And when you are converted, strengthen your brothers.
(33) And he said to Him, Lord, I am ready to go with You, both into prison and into death.
(34) And He said, I say to you, Peter, the cock shall not crow this day before you shall deny knowing Me three times.
Our Lord Jesus began His conversation with His Apostle in these words:
Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has desired you, that he may sift you as wheat.
He called him by name twice to underscore the gravity of what He was about to say.
Then He said to him by a word of knowledge that Satan had requested permission from God to put him not to test, but to the test.
This request is reminiscent of God’s dialogue with Satan concerning Job.
- Like Job’s, this was a plot petitioned to The Throne in Heaven.
- Both were at the instance of the great dragon, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan.
- Both had the same objective.
- Both were acute in their intensity.
- Both are classic revelations that events in the natural are dictated from the spiritual realm.
(Dearly beloved, we should not be deceived, life is spiritual.)
- Both reveal that we do not contend with human beings but with spiritual entities.
- And in both cases Satan had to obtain God’s consent before he could put either Job or Peter to the test.
What is the import to you and I today of the need for Satan to get God’s authorization before he could put these two saints to the test?
Firstly
It assures us that our God and Father is in absolute control of all that happens to us when we stay within the boundaries of the will our Heavenly Father, abiding in His love.
Secondly,
The practical relevance to us today is that we know that Satan has no power over us except it is given to him from Above.
This knowledge enables us to be discerning, and to steadfastly resist him when he comes against us with that which is not written concerning you and me.
However, the truth that Satan is absolutely limited to only that which our God permits is a reality in our lives provided:
1. You are walking in The Light that is The Christ in you.
In other words, you are not walking in ignorance of who you are in your union with our Lord Christ.
And in addition you are not shirking your responsibility to be rightly related to God’s Throne.
Simply put, you are subject to our King under the three organs through which He rules over us on the earth.
2. This limitation of Satan is true and is real in your experience provided you continue to walk in love and righteousness; and in humility.
3. Satan and his demons can neither torment nor afflict you provided he has no stronghold of the flesh in your soul.
Put otherwise, the prince of this world cannot touch you provided there is nothing of his world in you.
If I expect to walk in the glorious liberty of the children of God, and in dominion, without This Condition, which is, The Christ in me, being fulfilled, then I am being deceived by the one who deceives the whole world.
Our Lord Jesus continued His solemn conversation with His Apostle by saying to him:
But I have prayed for you
We should note His opening words “but I”.
In Ephesians 2:1–3, the Apostle Paul wrote that prior to being born again we were all by nature the children of the devil.
Thankfully, he continued thus in verses 4–6:
(4) But God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love with which He loved us
(5) (even when we were dead in sins) has made us alive together with Christ (by grace you are saved),
(6) and has raised us up together and made us sit together in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus,
Those two opening words, “but God” changed our lot from eternity with the devil and his angels in everlasting fire, to being with our Lord Jesus Christ forever.
Glory to God!
And we would suppose that every one of us at The Table can repeatedly testify to imminent disasters turned to good because of these two words: “But God”.
Likewise, the outcome for the Apostle Peter’s trial of faith was hinged on our Lord Jesus’s “but I”.
What did our Lord Jesus do to avert an impending disaster for Peter, and consequently keep him on The Way to obtaining the glory of God?
He prayed for His dearly beloved companion and help.
Today, our Lord Christ is in Heaven with His Father.
But He is interceding for His brethren through you and I as His Apostle Paul wrote to us in Ephesians 6:18:
Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;
And thankfully, this intercession we do in concert with The Comforter as is written in Romans 8:26 & 27:
(26) Likewise the Spirit also helps our infirmities. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.
(27) And He searching the hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God.
Dearly beloved, your brother or sister’s life in time and in eternity is dependent upon your intercession.
Would you fail our Lord Christ in our brethren?
Going further, our Lord Jesus revealed what He prayed for His Apostle in these few words:
That your faith fail not.
He prayed that the Apostle’s faith should not collapse.
Now, what is the relevance of this simple prayer to you and I today?
This prayer revealed that Satan’s ultimate goal is that we lose our faith.
In other words, Satan is not after your health, your physical life, your family, your finance, your ministry. He is after your faith.
His objective is to abort the Word Of faith — The Christ In you
So what is the benefit of knowing that Satan is after my faith?
If we do not know what the thief is after, we would seek to protect what he has no interest in, and thereby, unwittingly, giving him the liberty to achieve his goal.
The knowledge that the great dragon is after The Seed of God in us enables us to protect at all costs the one thing that matters: our exclusive heart devotion to our Bridegroom, and our seamless fellowship with Him.
After revealing Satan’s desire to prove him, our Lord Jesus said by a word of wisdom to the Apostle Peter:
And when you are converted, strengthen your brothers.
He said to him that when he is recovered, he should strengthen his brothers.
He reveals to us a reason why our Heavenly Father allows us to be tried by Satan.
God permits Satan to try us not only to prove us, but also that we may be enabled to infuse into our brethren the strength we received of Him in our travails.
Of this ability received through painful experiences, the Apostle Paul wrote in 2Corinthians 1:3 & 4:
(3) Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort,
(4) who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.
Our mothers at The Table may agree with the Apostle that a woman who has been through the travails of child birth is best equipped to comfort and strengthen another during her time of delivery.
Our Great God and Savior Jesus Christ is a man like us and His Apostle Paul wrote of Him in Hebrews 4:14 & 15
(14) Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession.
(15) For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.
Seeing that our Lord Jesus experienced and overcame all the challenges we could possibly go through, He is uniquely and supremely qualified to both comfort and strengthen us in our trying moments.
Therefore let us come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
(Heb 4:16)
Now, let us listen to the Apostle Peter’s response to our Lord’s unveiling of Satan’s plan to put him to the test:
And he said to Him, Lord, I am ready to go with You, both into prison and into death.
The Apostle placed his confidence in his love for The Lord, and in his self-ability to stand against the assault of the great dragon.
He relied on his own strength, apparently, being unmindful of The Lord’s warning in Jeremiah 17:5:
Thus says the LORD: “Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the LORD.
Regardless of the Apostle’s confidence in himself, our Lord Jesus said to His dear friend plainly:
Peter, the cock shall not crow this day before you shall deny knowing Me three times.
He said to his Apostle that he was doomed to repeatedly fail woefully.
Sure enough, He did.
And most certainly, you and I would also fail again and again, if we trust in our love for The Lord rather than in His love for us.
Furthermore, if we look to the energy generated by our wills to do the will of God, we, also, would repeatedly fail as did the Apostle Paul in his experience written to us in Romans chapter 7.
On the contrary, let us listen to, and hear, what God said about those who look to our Lord Christ for all, and in all, as is written in Jeremiah 17:17:
Blessed is the man that trusteth in the LORD, and whose hope the LORD is.
